Beijing’s “Forbidden City” was first built between 1406 and 1421 using giant timbers from China’s far southwest. After this massive construction project, the palaces burned repeatedly in the 1500s. These disasters were felt not only in Beijing, but also in remote Sichuan and Guizhou, where the logging projects to supply wood for rebuilding destroyed the growth of centuries and led to outright warfare among the rulers of the region as they competed to cut down the best remaining trees. This two-hundred-year story of disaster and rebuilding reveals how Beijing drew upon the resources of the greater Ming empire.
